Daren in Brief - DECADE'S BEST XII
by Daren Foster

So as we enter the Top Ten phase of the Best Movies of the Decade, I’ll be rolling them out like animals to the arc, two-by-two. Why? Because I know you won’t be able to handle the tension.

#10) 24 Hour Party People (2002)

Evidently, if director Michael Winterbottom and actor Steve Coogan had made 20 movies together over the last 10 years, there would not be any other film on my Best Of list for the decade aside from theirs. In an era dominated by high octane, empty-headed, CGI-generated adolescent boy celluloid wet dreams, Winterbottom rode against the grain, putting out highly divergent fare ranging from serious takes on the War on Terror™®© to Mr. Toad-like wild romps over pop culture and the nature of narrative storytelling. That his “lighter” offerings are what caught my fancy is a clear indication of my own shallowness.

24 Hour Party People is a raucous take on the pre-Madchester music scene of the early-to-mid-80s that would spit out such post-punk icons as Joy Division-New Order, The Smiths, Happy Mondays et al. Focusing on real life media personality, Tony Wilson (Coogan), who helped establish the Factory Records label and the Haçienda nightclub, … Party People epitomizes the anarchic wave of what is now a largely trite and meaningless Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll battle cry. Although it follows a familiar story arc of discovery, rise, complete and utter indulgence, fall and redemption (if only by posterity), … Party People does so on its own terms and never ever gives into tearful regret or sanctimonious morality.

It also features one of the funniest moments in the movies from the past 10 years. Coogan’s Wilson gets caught by his wife in the back of a van with his pants literally around his ankles, receiving a blow job from another woman. His first response? It’s not what it looks like, love. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll!!

#9) Sexy Beast (2000)

I imagine Sir Ben Kingsley has spent much of his career attempting to avoid being typecast as the peace loving, independence seeking, Mahatma Gandi, which garnered him a Best Actor Oscar back in 1982. Nowhere did he pull off the anti-Gandi any better than as unhinged low life, Don Logan, in Sexy Beast. As you watch the movie, you can’t think of a more psychotic, dangerous, volatile sociopath in the history of movies until you meet Don’s boss, Teddy Bass (played by Ian McShane, auditioning for his Al Swearengen role in Deadwood). Holy Christ! The crazy runs deep throughout Sexy Beast.

From the opening credits in a sun bleached south of Spain where a runaway boulder smashes through the serenity of ex-thief Gal Dove’s retirement, Sexy Beast embraces with gusto the one last job subgenre of the heist flick. Knowing things rarely turn out well for the protagonist in this type of movie, events keep piling up in a way that only confirms your suspicion that Gal ain’t going to die old and peacefully. Suffice to say and refusing to be a spoiler for any of those out there who somehow missed this movie, Sexy Beast delivers up surprising twists and turns right to the very end and somehow pulls off a well-earned satisfying ending that no film featuring Ben Kingsley’s nutso Don Logan and Ian McShane’s ice cold Teddy Bass deserves.

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